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Saturday, October 30, 2010

I started off by enlarging a geometric layout I did a while ago for a handmade rug and printed it out on the draft setting so as not to waste precious ink...you know how that goes. James loaned me a nice punching implement and I punched little holes through the outline of the design to give me the 'bones' to work on when I started to carve the pumpkin proper.

Here I am beginning the carving and not knowing where the heck this design is taking me...I haven't carved before only cut right through the pumpkin to make cute faces etc. James keeps telling me as I use another of his tools..."Don't cut towards your fingers or you'll be sorry!!" I listened for once in my life and made it through with narry a blemish.

The finished result...as you can see an old friend from last Hallowe'en has joined us...Pumpkin Boy 2009...see him in his youth in the pic two below.

I couldn't decided which picture I preferred more - the one above or below so I posted both...isn't the reflection on the table suitably spooky??

What a difference a year makes...'Pumpkin Boy' has really deteriorated in this last year...out in all weathers and living hard, I hope my looks don't go this fast!!

An appropriately 'thorny' Fall/Autumn picture from the world outside today...

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Just recently I was asked by Magy and Clay King of Green Hive Honey in Camden Maine to design a label/logo for their delicious honey. How could I refuse when A. I was asked so nicely and B. they wanted a design with a pink background with gold foil accents and complementary fondant icing colours and C. I love honey...now tell me that doesn't sound like a dream job for yours truly...lover of pink and all things sweet??

So I betook myself to the place where their honey is made and availed myself of these photographs for visual inspiration.Above you see the Green Hive Honey bees doing their job...buzzing and dancing and busying their days away in their idyllic environment not far from the town centre of Camden, Maine.....

This is a corner of the garden where they do their work and make oodles of delicious amber coloured honey which is lovingly extracted by mechanical means from the comb.

"Organically raised “girls” busily buzz in

orchards, fields, and gardens making

exquisite wildflower honey. Brought to you

straight from comb to jar, our raw, boutique

honey is nature’s purest gift from happy

bees. Never heated, thereby naturally

preserving the healing properties only honey

affords."

Just look at that deep amber colour...so beautiful, and I can vouch right now to how divinely this honey tastes....Magy and Clay gave me a jar to sample and inspire the muse - help get the creative juices a-flowing

And thus they flowed. I started the process by designing three separate but similar layouts, seen below in the order in which they came to be.

...and the final sketch and winner was....ta dah, not only Magy and Clay's favourite but mine too...I'm so glad they choose this design below, although having created them myself, and thus being ever so slightly biased in that regard, I would have been more than happy to move forward with any of the three.

And here below Ladies and Gentlemen the final label design...scanned, cleaned up and with a computer added pink ground and darker pink border...for who in their right mind wants to paint a pale pink ground around such a complex outline...not me for sure. I have learned my lesson with that in the past...put the grounds on after you have scanned the handiwork and make your life SO much easier.The word Honey, the honeycomb and the central bee outline will all 'bee' in gold foil on the finished labels...won't that be divine?

My sincere thanks to Magy and Clay King for being so gracious and easy to work with...it was my delight!! Now I must find a British dessert with honey as the featured ingredient and do a blog post on that...suggestions anyone?

And now to the Bee Loud Glade with you!!

The Lake Isle Of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

Friday, October 22, 2010

Above you can see the apple trees my windfalls came from .......what's weird is that I realized today that both the red apples and the yellow apples both came from the same tree...the one on the left above...the red apples are growing on one side of the tree the yellow ones on the opposite...I have never seen this before!!

Anyhow...once I had gotten over this bizarre fact I gathered myself some of the yellow windfalls and proceeded to avail myself of a delicious recipe called "Baked Apple Pudding" which I have renamed "Windfall Apple Pie Pudding". I began by roasting a whole bunch of the apples in the wood burning stove and then, when they had popped and were soft and fluffy and cool, I pushed them through a fine sieve. I ended up with about 3/4 cup/6 ozs of nice, dense apple pulp from 10 apples cut into quarters and cored...I roasted them in a little melted butter and a smattering of sugar for added flavour. You could perhaps use apple sauce for this dessert but it may be too watery....so at a pinch you could heat the sauce in a pan and stir continuously to dry it out a bit....maybe??

Piecrust...Pate Brisee by MarthaPre-heat oven to 425F1 1/4 cups/5ozs of white flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 stick (4ozs) butter I always use salted, VERY cold
1/8 to 1/4 cup ice cold water
METHOD:
1. Sift the flour
2. Grate the butter into the flour.
3. Gently work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal.
4. Add some of the water and test to see if it comes together, if not keep adding water until the dough will squush into a non-sticky ball.
5. Put into the fridge to rest for at least one hour.
6. Take the pastry out of the fridge, allow to warm a very little, roll out nice and thin, then line an 8" tart pie...preferably with a removable base, I used two small oval pie dishes instead of one large and they worked well. Put back in the fridge for about another 20 minutes til nice and cold...the colder the better...I have found the colder it is before baking the less the pie shell will shrink in cooking.

Pie Filling:

3/4 lb/ 6ozs apple pulp obtained as above

3 heaped tablespoons sugar

1 whole egg plus one yolk well whisked together

2ozs/ 1/2 stick salted butter

zest from one lemon

juice from 1/2 lemon

Grated nutmeg to finish

1. Add sugar to pulp.

2. Add lemon zest and juice and stir well.

3. Add eggs and mix.

4. Add melted butter and mix really well.

Pour into prepared pastry shell and bake for about 40 minutes at about 425F...the instructions in the recipe book were as follows "Bake in a good oven for 1/2 hour".....until your pie looks like the one below, below!! Directly beneath is the pie ready to go into the 'good' oven

The pie turned out REALLY well...it tastes somewhat like a lemon meringue pie with added apple sauce and its kinda like a pumpkin pie with no pumpkin!!

Friday, October 15, 2010

It's definitely the kind of day you need to sit by the crackling fire and avail yourself of lashings of hot tea and buttered toast!! The wind is howling and rain is beating against the windows...my tea and toast are ready and the wee puppies are slumbering peacefully by the fire. A Nor'easter is blowing wild outside and any minute now the electricity may go off so I need to get this post up pretty sharpish.

Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson

In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

Fred and Eleanor happy as Larry by the humming wood stove....ahhhhhhh!!

Above and below are scenes from yesterday's calm and beauty before the blow set in....I cannot resist taking pictures up into the tree branches...someone stop me please!!!

And a view from the top of Blueberry Hill.....looking west

A view from the front yard across the street

And another view from the top of Blueberry Hill looking "up" Down East...go figure that one out if you don't live here!!

Hope you are warm and cozy wherever you are.....and enjoy your tea and toast!

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Dear Friends, I do change things in and out of this column quite often so check back now and again to see what new things I have for you to explore. THANKS!!!PLEASE, kindly ask permission for the use of any of the photos or artwork from this blog (for non-commercial purposes only - if you want to discuss using my art/photographs for commercial purposes please be in touch for my terms) All the images used here are copyrighted by me, click on 'View my complete profile' (at the bottom of 'About me') to send an e-mail directly, Thanks!!!!!!!